Automatic die-press



W. CAMERDN.

AUTOMATIC DE PRESS.

APPlmnmn min MAY 1a, Isls.

Patented Apr. 20, 1920.

i 3 SHETSAHEET 2.

Lam

W. CAMERON.

AUTOMATIC DHI PRESS.

APPLICAUUN men MAY\8.19\8.

1,337,307, Patented Apr. 20, 1920.

a HEUs-snen a.

"UNITED s TAtrEs PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM CAMERON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 TORRIS WOLD COMPANY,0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION 0F ILLINOIS.

AUTOMATIC DIE-PRESS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 20, 1920.

Original application led May 25, 1917, Serial No. 170,838. Patent No.1,277,342, dated August $7, 1918. Divided and this application nled May18, 1818. Serial No. 235,981.

To all 1li/Lam, it may co'nrcrn:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM CAMERON, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Die- Presses,of which the following is a specification.

This invention, a division of my Patent No. 1,277,342, granted August.27, 1918, foi sheet feedingr mechanism, relates to auto- -iiiatic diepresses, particularly of the type employed for punching out from sheetmetal blanks the tops and bottoms of tin cans and other receptacles, theshape of the. articles or objects produced by the press being, ofcourse, dependent upon the size and shape of the punches and diesemployed in the machine.

One of the vobjects of the invention resides in the provision of agenerally iinproved blank feeding mechanism by which the blanks areadvanced intermittently to the dies. It is highly essential that successive blanks being fed to the dies shall not overlap; otherwise, ifoverlappingl portions were pressed between the dies, injury to the dieswould resu i. The liability of over la pingr of ends if the succeedingblanks `is eliminated by my improved blank feeding mechanism by insuringa slight separation of the ends of successive blanks from each other.regardless of whether the blanks are not all cut exaetl even and of thesaine length, although they might be intended to be of uniform length.

Other features of my improved blank feeding mechanism are the provisionof interchangeable feed hars and blankfecdinp` dogs of novelconstruction, and the provision of improved means for o erating the feedbar including. a frangi le element which will be sheared'otl in case thefeed bar shall catch, or for any reason excessive strain Should beimposed thereon.

Other objects and many of the inherent advanta rcs will be. readilyappreciated by those skilled in the art as the invention befomcs betterunderstood by reference to the following description whcuconsidered inconnection with the accompanying drawin s, 1n whichi igure 1 is a frontelevation section, of that portion of a d bodying my invention,

Fig. 2, an end elevation on a reduced scale looking toward the right atFig. 1, omitting such parts of the ress as arei unnecessary for anunderstan ing of my present improvements Fig. 3, a fragmentary detailview, show ing the manner of adjusting the back bar of `the feed channelto accommodate the machine to blanks of various widths, this View heiligtaken substantially on line 3--3 of Fig. 2; i

Fig. 4, an enlarged view, partially in section, of certain parts shown1n Fig. 2;

.Figa 5, a fragmentar sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4,showin the partially in ie press em Iconstruction and arrangement of theeeding dogs and one of the sheet. clamping;` members; and

F 6, a plan View of the clamp shown in F1 5.

Re eri-ing to the drawings, it will be noted that I have limited them toa showing of only such parts of an automatic die press as are necessaryfora. clear understanding of my present improvements. In a, machine ofthis character, the blanks are successively lifted from a'niagnzine andpositioned in operative'relatiou to a feeding device which feeds eachblank in step-by-step movements to the dies. The particular constructionand operation of the magazine, the blankelifting means, the dies and themeans for op erating these instrumentalities in synchro nism are notessential to my present ini- -provements, hence they areillustratedA inthe drawings simply for purpose of clarity. For an understandin of t ecomplete machine, reference may e had to my ap lica tion mentionedabove. It will be su cient to mention that the sheet metal blanks to befed to the machine are stacked one upon another in 'a suitable magazine12 carried by the frame, which is indicated by character 13. This frameis formed to provide a pali of opstanding supports 14 in which thenaled. A power pulley Vor belt wheel 16 rotatably mounted u on one endof the shaft 15 is continuously riven by a belt from any suitable sourceof ower. Any suitable manually controlled c utch may be employed forconnecting the power pulley to, and dis` connectin it from the spift, asis well understood in this art. In ig. 2, is shown the connecting rod 17of the ciank operated by the power pulley for reciprocating the `head 18carrying the movable die. Thls movable die coperaties Vwith thestationary die 1%),

Fi 1 dlesgfrom sheet metal blanks in the usual manner, which are fedbetween the dies as described later.

The 4blanks are lifted or picked up, one at a time, from the magazine bydpneumatic lifters of any suitable or preferre construction` It willbesufficient to state that these lifters consist of a plurality of (in thepresent instance four) sucker heads 21 mounted upon 'the lower ends ofpipes 22, which arc mounted to reciprocate 1n fixed slide bear ings 23and are connected together at their pper ends by a header pipe 24. Eachof the sucker heads is slightly cup shaped on its lower surface andprovided with an aperture through which suction is exerted upon the upermost sheet o`r blank in the magazine w en the sucker heads are pressedinto engagement with the uppermost blank. The sucker heads arereciprocated between the extremet uplper position in which they areshown in igsx 1 and 2 to their extreme lower poA ition which continuallyvaries with the number of the blanks inthe magazine, by suitablemechanism, only partially illustrated and designated by the character25, o erated from the main drive shaft l5.

his operating mechanism is so designed that at each actuation of theshaft 15, the sucker4 heads will travel a variable distance dependingupon the height of the-stack of sheets in the magazine and will engageand redetermined lift the upper sheet into a transferred position fromwhich it may to thefeeding mechanism.

Forn the elevated position to which the uppermost blank has been -liftedby the sucker heads as shown by the blank indicated by referencecharacter 26, (Fig. 2)

` the lifted blank is transferred edgewise into an inclined slot orguideway along which it is fed lon itudinally to the operating dies. Thetransferring mechanism may be of any suitable construction, and n eedonly be mentioned here as consisting of a plurality of transferrers 27adapted to reciprocateV parallel with the plane of the blank 26for-moving the blank into the slot or guldeway just mentioned. Thetransferrers are o erated by suitable means from the powers aft 15 insynchronism with the pneumatic lifter-s to cut or punch out objects orarti-A and the'feedin mechanism which will be presently descri' ed.

The depth to which the blank 26 will enter the slot or guideway isdetermined by a back bar 28 adjustably mounted in the botltom ofI thefeed slot and provided with rearwardly disposed tapped bosses 29 adaptedto receive adjusting screws 31 by means of which the height of the backbar may be manually adjusted and regulated. T his construction will bereadily apparent from Figs. 3 and 4, from which it will be seen that ifnarrow blanks are to be operated upon the back bar will be adjustedupwardly so that when the lower edge of a 'blank is resting on the back.bur the blank will be in propel' longitudinal alinemeut with theoperating dies. If wider blanks are employed the back bar will beadjusted downwardlythe requisite amount, and it should be manifest.

that by means of the adjusting screws disclosed the back bar may beadjusted and regulated to a fine degree of nicety.

After being transferred into the feed slot in the manner previouslyexplained the blank is fed forwardly tothe dies in a stepbye-stepmovement by means of feeding mechanism, which will now be described. Onthe lower side of the feed slot the frame is formed to provide anelongated recess or guideway 32 shaped to accommodate a' reciprocatoryfeed bar 33, Figs. 4 and This feed bar is of substantially L-shape incross section and is provided with a series of spaced pivot pins 34threaded into or otherwise ixedly secured to the upwardlj1 extendingportion of the feed bar and projecting outwardly substantially flushwith the vopposite face of the bar.k These pins are spaced apart adistance equal to the desired forward movement of a metal blank at eachactuation so that the blank will be.

positioned between the dies between successive operations ofthe dies.'The feed bar is reeiprocated a uniform distancel at each stroke bymechanism which will be later described and if a longer or shortertravel of the blanks is desiredto conform to larger or smaller objectsto be punched out from the blank at each operation of the dies,fthe`eedbar is withdrawn longitudinall from `its guideway and is replaced by aeed bar on which the pins 34 are spaced a greater or less distance a artinacoordance with the r uirements o the dies. l

pon each pin 34 there is pivotally mounted a feed dog 35 which is simplyslipfped onto the pin, where it is held when the eed' bar is 1n oerativesition by the side wall o the feedpbar guidewa fe'ed dogis'capable of a limite movement on its pin, and when dlsposed pivotalbeneath a blank 26 the dog assumes the position in which the central dogi`s shown in Fig. 5. When uponreeiprocatory movement lil of the feed bara dog' is withdrawn from heneath the blank it is elevated so as toengage behind the rear edge of the blank as shown at the left in Fig. 5,this movement being effected by a small ex ansion spring 36 disposed ina socket forme in the dog and pressing at opposite ends against thebottom of the socket and a plunger 37 respectively, which projects fromthe socket into engagement with the laterally extending portion of thefeed bar. v

All of the feed dogs are spaced apart the same distance on anyparticular bar and all of the dogs are of the same length with theexception of the two end dogs. It is highly essentiel that successiveblanks being fed to the nies shall not overlap or otherwise, ifoverlappin portions were presented between the ies, injury "to the dioswould result. Since the blanks are not all cut exactly evenly and of thesame length, even if they Were intended to be of uniform length, I havefound it desirable to insure a slight separation of the ends ofsuccessive blanks from each other. To accomplish this purpose I make thefirst dog at the left hand end of the feed bar, which imparts theinitial feeding stroke to the blank, a little shorter than the otherdogs so that the first feeding step of the blank will not cause theforward end of the new blank to overlap the rear end of the nextpreceding blank. The result is that even if the new blank is a littlelonger than the standard length employed, the firstu stroke upon theblank will be a little shorter than the succeeding strokes` so that allliability of overlapping of the ends of succeeding blanks is eliminated.It should also be understood that the feed dogs are readily removableand interchangeable so that if short blanks are to be operated upon theshort dog, which is normally at the extreme left hand end of the feedbar, is moved to theV right a distance determined by the decrease `inlength of the blanks to be operated upon, so that the shorter do isalways employed to impart an initial feeding stroke to a blank.

The fecd bar is rcciprocatcd to feed the blanks forward intermittentlyby mechanism driven from the main shaft l5 so that at each revolution ofthis shaft a complete stroke of the feed bar is performed. Referring nowto Figs. l and Q, it will be 0bserved that upon a laterally projectingbracket 38 I have mounted n bell crank lever 3S) which is oscillated bymeans of a link 4l connected vat its lower end to one of the arms of thebell crank lever :1nd at its upper cud lo a crank pin 42 carried by theend of the shaft 15. The other arm of the bell crank lover 39 isconnected by a link 43 with :x bifurcated releasing member 44 pel.'-mancntly pivoted by a pin to a slide block -lfl which travels uponsuitable, guideways 47 fixed to the main frame of the machine. In orderto obviate injury to the machine in case the feed bar should becomestuck for any reason whatsoever, the release member 44 is connected withthe slide member 46 with a frangible pin 48. It will be obvious,therefore, that if upon feeding movement toward the right, viewing Figl, the feed bar should catch or excessive strain should be imposedthereon, the frangible pin 48 would be sheared off, permittingr therelease member` 44 to swing downward ly on its pivot pin 45. The machinewill then continue to run and the release member will be swung back andforth idly on its pivot 45 until the machine is stopped` the difli cultyis remedied, and a new frangible piu 48 is inserted.

The feed bar is connected with the slide member 46 by a spring bolt orpin 4) which is carried by the slide member 46 and yield ingly projectedupwardly above the member by an expansion spring 5l into an apertura`designed to receive the pin and formed in the outer end of the feed bar.Whenever it is desirable to replace one of these fecd bars by another itis only necessary to depress the pin 45) ont of engagement with the feedbar, whereupon the bar can be withdrawn longitudinally from itsguidcway.

For'the purpose of preventing return movement of the blanks in the` feedslot with the feed bars I have provided a series of yielding holdingdevices each consisting, as shown in li`ig. 4, of aV springpressed pin52 projecting upwardly from the lower face of the feed slot intoengagement with a blank in the slot, and these pins, urging the blankagainst the opposed face of the feed slot formed by a member shaped asshown in Fig. 4, serve to yieldingly clamp the blank so as to preventany retrograde movement thereof'.

For the purpose of securely holding the blank adjacent to the dies andparticularly for the purpose of holding the rear end of a blank duringthe last operation on the blank I have provided a pair of clam ingmembers located at the delivery end o the Vfeed slot and in proximity tothe dies, which serve to firmly clamp and hold the feed ,blank in therequisite position during the operation of the dies. These clamps, onlyone of which is shown in Figs. l, 5 and 6, each comprise a stationarymember 54 provided With a downwardly curved shoe 55 over which the blanktravels and by which it is supported, and a movable clamping member 56adapted to coc'iperatc with said shoe to clamp and hold thc blank. Themember 54 is secured so as to be capable of longitudinal adjustment to avertical weh 57 of a bracket 58 which is in turn adjustably mounted forlateral adjustment upon a stationary bar 59. The bracket is secured willbe caused to swin upon its pivotal connection with said sli e member soas to permit the feeding movement of said feed bar to be interrupted.

10. In a machine of the character (lescribed, the combination of ereriprocntory member. a swinging link pivoted at one end to seidmemberand releasably connected remote from said pivotal point to saidmember` and an operating member connected to said swinging link at npoint spaced` from said reciprocntory member so that nnder excessivestrain said releasnblc connection will permit said swinging link toswing about its pivot.

11. In e machine of thef character described, the combination of ereciprocatory member, e reciprocating member, and a connection betweensaid members compris- 1n en s to said members and a releasab econnection between sail swinging link and one of said members, saidthree connections being out of line with respect 'to each other so thatunder excessive strain said releasebie connection will permit acontinued movement of said reciprocetin member without movement y ofsaid reciprocatory member.

12. In a machinel ofv the character described. the combination of a'reciprocatory feed bar for advancing blanks in stepby e swinging linkpivoted et opposite 2n step movements7 and means for reciprocat-j ingthe feed. ba'r comprising a reciprocatory member and e link permanentlypivoted to the feed ber at one oint and releasably connected to the feedbar at another oint.

WILLIAM GAMER N

